Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Serum haptoglobin levels in cats with bowel disease or lymphoma
By Love, Edwina K et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2021·The Cancer Institute, United States·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Serum haptoglobin concentrations in feline inflammatory bowel disease and small-cell alimentary lymphoma: a potential biomarker for feline chronic enteropathies.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of cats with ongoing gastrointestinal problems were tested for serum haptoglobin levels to see if it could help tell apart inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from small-cell lymphoma, a type of cancer. The study included 62 cats, some healthy and others with either IBD or lymphoma. The results showed that cats with IBD and lymphoma had higher haptoglobin levels than healthy cats, but the levels were similar between the two sick groups. While haptoglobin can indicate gastrointestinal issues, it wasn't able to clearly distinguish between IBD and lymphoma. More research is needed to see how haptoglobin levels relate to the severity of these conditions.
People also search for: cat vomiting treatment · cat diarrhea causes · cat inflammatory bowel disease symptoms · cat cancer diagnosis · cat haptoglobin test
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate serum haptoglobin as a biomarker to differentiate between small-cell alimentary lymphoma and inflammatory bowel disease in cats. METHODS: Client-owned domestic cats with and without chronic gastrointestinal signs were enrolled in the study. Serum was collected from each patient and serum haptoglobin levels were measured using ELISA. In cats with gastrointestinal signs, histopathologic evaluation of endoscopic biopsies harvested from the intestinal tract was used to separate them into inflammatory bowel disease and small-cell lymphoma cohorts. Serum haptoglobin levels were statistically analyzed and compared among the three groups: healthy cats; cats with inflammatory bowel disease; and cats with small-cell alimentary lymphoma. RESULTS: Sixty-two cats were enrolled in the study, including 20 clinically normal cats, 14 cats with small-cell alimentary lymphoma and 28 cats with inflammatory bowel disease. The mean ± SD serum haptoglobin was 73.2 ± 39.1 mg/dl in normal cats, 115.3 ± 72.8 mg/dl in cats with inflammatory bowel disease and 133.1 ± 86.1 mg/dl in cats with small-cell alimentary lymphoma. Cats with inflammatory bowel disease and lymphoma had significantly higher serum haptoglobin than controls, withvalues of 0.0382 and 0.0138, respectively. There was no statistical difference between the inflammatory bowel disease and lymphoma cohorts ( = 0.4235). For every one unit increase in serum haptoglobin, the odds of gastrointestinal inflammatory disease (inflammatory bowel disease or small-cell alimentary lymphoma) increased by 1.41% ( = 0.0165). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Serum haptoglobin is a useful biomarker for distinguishing between normal cats and those with gastrointestinal inflammatory disease, but it could not significantly differentiate between inflammatory bowel disease and lymphoma. Additional studies may be beneficial in determining the prognostic significance of serum haptoglobin as it may relate to the severity of gastrointestinal inflammation.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33541236/